Movie Park Germany, Schloss Beck Freizeitpark, + Tiger and Turtle: My Obnoxious ACE Central Europe Trip Report - Part XIV

Okay, you guys!

The time has come to wrap up My Obnoxious ACE Central Europe Trip Report. It's been an amazing ride, and I'm so glad you joined me for it!

The last day consists of two parks: The odd and interesting Movie Park Germany, and the small and adorable Schloss Beck Park.

Welcome to Movie Park Germany! We may look like a poor-man's Universal Studios, but our customer service puts Universal's to shame!

Movie Park Germany has quite an interesting history. The park has closed and re-opened five separate times, and has gone through six name changes. The park's first three incarnations were that of traditional family parks, but the theme became movies when the park was re-envisioned as Bavaria Filmpark Bottrop in 1992. The re-theme proved to be not very popular and the park closed in 1993.

Warner Bros. purchased the park in 1994 & re-opened it in 1996 as Warner Bros. Movie World Germany. In 1999, Premier Parks (a.k.a. Six Flags) bought all 3 Warner Bros. Movie Worlds parks, thus making them members of the Six Flags family for a period of time. During Six Flag's mid-2000s bankruptcy & purge, the park was once again re-named & has remained under independent ownership ever since. 

The 5 year period in which Movie Park Germay was owned by Six Flags was a time of excessive growth for the park, and evidence of millennium-era Six Flags-ness is still present. 

First stop: Movie Park's newest coaster, Van Helsing's Factory!!

Van Helsing's Factory is our THIRD Gerstlauer Bobsled coaster, AND it's a top-notch thematic experience!

Pretty much everything about this ride is bitchin'. 

On paper, Van Helsing's Factor is a small custom mouse coaster. In reality, it's a superb and wild dark ride experience! Proof that proper execution can turn a small ride into a HUGE experience! Also, thank you to fellow ACE Central Trip goers (and Germany natives), the Tiemeiers, for having the ride operators give us some LIGHTS ON rides! Credit #130 of my Year of ??? New Coasters gets the day started off right!

The Van Helsing Shop had some really interesting things for sale. I can honestly say that I've never seen costume contact lenses for sale at a theme park before!

WAR EAGLE!

After our Van Helsing's Factory ERT, we headed over to the massive Nickelodeon kiddie area to get our kiddie credits before the park gets too crowded!

Time for "Backyardigans: Mission to Mars"! 

Backyardigans: Mission to Mars is basically a standard Vekoma Rollerskater on a pile of red rocks. It used to have an awesome mountain facade and a Wile E. Coyote theme when the park was owned by Six Flags. Still, it's a decent kiddie credit #131.

Just a fraction of the massive Nickelodeon area.

Who's ready for a Spongebob-themed wild mouse???

Smile, boys!

Like the Backyardigans coaster, Ghost Chasers used to have a really cool Warner Bros. theme: a giant living room/kitchen featuring everyone's favorite domestic abusers, Tom & Jerry! Credit #132.

At least the Dora The Explorer log flume still looks pretty cool.

In addition to Ghost Chasers, Spongebob also has his own Boating School-themed splash battle ride!

Vekoma kiddie coaster #2: Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer!

Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer would end up being the first of several successful Vekoma Suspended Family Coasters with awesome re-designed seats! 

EXTREME JIMMY NEUTRON ATOMIC FLYER POV EXCITEMENTNESS!

The cars actually sway a bit, a little bit like a suspended coaster. :}

A funky and fun little coaster. Yay for credit #133 I have a feeling that it's going to be the best inverted coaster here.....

We rode Dora's log flume next. Nothing to write home about.

The elaborate rapids ride crammed in behind the Nickelodeon area was, on the other hand, quite interesting. Part of the cue is a GIANT bookshelf!

There's quite a lot elaborate stuff that went into the rapids ride, but not all of it is kept up, and frankly, the whole ride is totally out of place & hidden. 

Oh, and they have one of these too.

Now that we've finished up with the Nickelodeon area, time to head back into big-kid areas!

Michael is not really sure if this area really captures the natural beauty of Santa Monica.

Crammed in a far corner of the park is MP Express, a Vekoma SLC that looks particularly unappealing.

Once sporting a Lethal Weapon theme, the MP Express now has really no theme to speak of. Also, notice how the sky is only grey over this particular ride. I actually didn't do anything to the pictures to cause that. 

MP Express was surprisingly not-horrible. It has every excuse to suck, but it was actually pretty decent. Yay for credit #134 not killing us.

I guess if MP Express had a theme, it would be faded movie posters from 6 years ago.

Bandit, the park's wooden coaster, was closed during our visit. 

According to the park's website, Bandit is closed because the ride is "not currently performing to the standards that we maintain for our attractions" or something to that effect. 

Bandit is a rollercoaster built by the infamous Roller Coaster Corporation of America. RCCA is responsible for such gems as the late Son of Beast at Kings Island, and Coaster Express at Parque Warner Madrid (one of the other 2 former Warner Bros. Movie World parks).

Bandit, like most of its RCCA brethren, is regarded as among the worst wooden coasters on the planet. I consider myself fortunate that I was not even tempted to subject myself to its inappropriate level of bad-ness. 

When your drop tower out-performs most of the coasters in your park, what does this say?

Lame coasters?

Great drop tower?

In this case, maybe a little of both.

I've got to give Movie World credit for having such a nice queue for their drop tower.

The position of High Fall's seats allowed Ron to demonstrate his ballet skills for us!

If you're familiar with Six Flags Over Georgia, you're probably thinking to yourself,

"Jesus! There's two of those things?!?!"

INDEED! Six Flags Over Georgia is home to the only Intamin Floorless RotoDrop in the United States, but it's not the only one in the World!! High Fall, an exact copy of Acrophobia at Six Flags Over Georgia, is the only other Intamin Floorless RotoDrop ever manufactured, and it's probably one of the most noticeable remnants of Movie Park's Six Flags era.

Additional thing: Six Flags Over Georgia replaced the seats on Acrophobia a few years after it opened. Riding High Fall, which still has the old seats, reminded us all why elected to do so. 

Let's just say that, if High Fall had a favorite Russian ballet, it would probably be The Nutcracker. :}

Moving right along...

The park's Riddler-themed Power Plant-themed Top Spin is one of the signature rides of the Gotham City New York area. Has a great ride program, too!

Last order of business at Movie Park Germany: an Alien Encounter-themed  shoot-the-chutes dark ride, all by itself at the front of the park (this place really has one of the most disjointed layouts I've ever seen).

I know this looks weird. I can explain!

All vessels for water rides must have the ability to drain themselves of excess standing water. Apparently, the drains for all of Alien Encounter's boats are clogged, and rather than replace the drains, Movie Park has decided that they'd rather have ride operators manually suck the water out of the boats with a Shop-Vac. 

You can't make this sh*t up.

Who's ready for an Alien Encounter?!

Oops! We can't leave until all of the coffee-colored water has been vacuumed from the boat!

"Can I have you guys all lean to the right for me, please?"

"Okay!"

You have got to be kidding me. 

As it turns out, the Alien Encounter shoot-the-chute was actually pretty great. I never thought I'd see theming quite like that on a ride like this. Pretty good drops, too!

Meal time! Time to chow down on some Chow Mien!

...or not. It was the worst Chow Mien I've ever had. The cola-beer I got was pretty bad too, but I have no one to blame but myself for that. Oh well. At least it was free! Fortunately, the people with the meat-based dishes fared much better than I.

My lunch ended up being three boxes of these. They were effing amazing.

If you walk to the end of Movie Park Germany's parking lot, you'll find yourself in front of Schloss Beck Freizeitpark! And, as you can see, they have a Tivoli coaster!

It's already nicer than Movie Park.

Looks like we weren't the only ones with the bright idea to visit Scholss Beck!

Achterbahn, Schloss Beck Freizeitpark's only coaster, is a particularly-cute figure-8 Tivoli coaster.

Last coaster of the trip, y'all! Let it be a good one!

WEEEEEE! XTREME ACHTERBAHN POV WILDNESS!!!

That's a wrap!! I've officially racked up ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE credits on my Year of 100 135 New Coasters!

We've got time for the Boat Chute before we head for the buses!

The Boat Chute is Ann-approved!

Okay, guys! It's almost time to go! Is everyone accounted for? ROLL CALL!

John!

Mat!

Rus!

Ron!

and M&M!!

That's everyone!

Farewell, our last parks in Germany!!

While our park roster is now complete, we still have one more stop...

TIGER AND TURTLE!

That's right! Kevin and Ray surprised us with a stop at Germany's famous roller coaster staircase sculpture! 

While a lengthy walking trail to the top was at our disposal, many ACErs turned to rock-climbing to get to the sculpture more quickly!

What a magnificent piece of engineering this is!

After a few ground shots, It was time to walk the track!

Kate is VERY excited about Tiger and Turtle.

Just below the vertical loop!

(And no, you can't walk the loop.)

Look who it is!!!

I'm sure everyone here is familiar with CoasterGallery.com, right?

If not, then you should be!

XTREME TIGER AND TURTLE POV OMG-NESS!

Cross-tying the loop with Bill!

Looks like a pretty wild ride indeed. :}

Hello, boys!

Tiger and Turtle is one of the only dog-friendly coasters around. :}

Under the loop!

I just love art. :}

Cross-tying the loop with Ethan!

The whole experience was really quite remarkable. Thrilling, too!

Each time a gust of wind came, we felt Tiger and Turtle sway a bit.

After a couple of hours on Tiger and Turtle, it was time to go! 

Watching ACErs climb up the rocks was quite interesting.

Watching ACErs climb down the rocks was quite hilarious.

Betty made the sound decision to slide down the steeper parts. She's totally thrilled about this picture existing. :}

Soon everyone was off of the sculpture

and back on the bus. That's all!

The next day, Michael, Ron and I walked around Frankfurt. It was a lot of fun, but not exactly thrilling. I decided to spare you all the coaster-less stuff & end things on a thrilling note. :}

I would personally like to thank all of you who took the time to read any or all of My Obnoxious ACE Central Europe Trip Report! Not only was this trip the experience of a lifetime, but an incredible follow-up to the ACE Scandinavian Sojourn, during which I was fortunate enough to meet so many of the wonderful people that I would later be traveling with to Germany and beyond!

I had so much fun putting this report together. :}

Also.....

COMING SOON:

My HLN Morning Express Meteorology Segment at Six Flags Over Georgia Trip Report!!

AND

A few other surprises!

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